Successful £2.1 million institutional fundraising

Introduction

Acta (AIM: ACTA), the clean energy products company, announces that the Company has, via an institutional placing (the ”Placing”), raised £2.1 million (gross) though the issue and allotment of 30,000,000 ordinary shares of Euro 0.006 each in the capital of the Company (“Placing Shares”).

The Placing Shares were placed at a price of 7 pence per share (the ”Placing Price”). The net proceeds of the Placing will be used to finance the working capital requirements of the Company’s current commercial expansion.

Background to, and reasons for, the Placing

At the time of the interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2013, announced on 30 September 2013, the Board was pleased to report that Acta’s product revenues, shipment numbers and average selling price were each increasing rapidly. Further key highlights included in the announcement were as follows:

In respect of sales and marketing:

o The launch of the Acta Power: a hydrogen battery with autonomous refuelling;

o The appointments of a sales partner for the SE Asia telecoms market along with distribution partners for both the Indian and Chinese industrial gas and telecom back-up power markets;

o The first commercial sales of Acta Power and large electrolysers achieved in India, Indonesia, Africa and Taiwan;

o The first Acta Power trials for telecom back-up power application in Australia, Africa and the Philippines; and

o The first repeat order for an Acta Power for operational evaluation in Africa.

In respect of operational and product development:

o Development of the Acta Power based on Future-E fuel cell with Ballard stack;

o Four-fold expansion of the Company’s production area;

o Standardisation of product range on modular components;

o Implementation of web interface for full remote system management and assistance; and

o Recruitment of 14 new staff in commercial, production, engineering and installation.

The key development in 2013 has been the launch of the Acta Power in April 2013, which was born from the strategic decision to bring the Company’s own end-user product, an integrated hydrogen energy storage system, to market. This product addresses the very substantial markets for telecom back-up power systems and distributed renewable energy storage.

The immediate commercial response to this product has been highly encouraging and Acta Power units have now been installed or are due to be installed into operational live site trials with various major mobile phone operators in Australia, Africa and the Philippines. Without exception, the initial feedback from the evaluations in progress has been positive. Additional negotiations are in progress for further trials in Malaysia for a potential large Government funded project to replace existing battery systems, Australia, Singapore and elsewhere, and the Board expects to be able to announce progress in these areas in due course.

The Company’s commercial metrics continue to improve, with increases in both volume and average unit price contributing to a strong improvement in revenues from system sales. In addition, there has also been an increase in the levels of repeat orders, with customers coming back for more and/or larger systems. The Board is particularly optimistic regarding potential sales of both the Acta Power system and the Company’s mid to large electrolysers over the next 18 months to two years.

The Board believes that the level of commercial interest that Acta’s products are continuing to attract clearly demonstrates the potential for Acta’s technology and that the Placing will provide new financing for continued business development that will allow the Company to continue to grow its commercial activities with existing customers and new commercial partners around the world.

Details of the Placing

The Placing has been supported by a combination of existing and new institutional investors, plus the Company’s Board members, each of whom has participated in the Placing for a total subscription of £33,000 in aggregate, as follows:

Subscription

Paolo Bert

CEO

£10,000

Paul Barritt

CFO

£10,000

Robert Drummond

Non Executive

£3,000

Aldo Filippini

Non Executive

£5,000

Rodney Westhead

Non Executive

£5,000

The Placing utilises the Company’s authority to issue up to 50,000,000 new ordinary shares that was granted on 3 July 2013. The Placing is not underwritten and is subject to, inter alia, admission of the Placing Shares to trading on AIM (“Admission”).

The Placing Shares represent approximately 17.6% of the fully diluted share capital as enlarged by the Placing.

Admission and dealing arrangements

Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for Admission of the Placing Shares. It is expected that dealings in the Placing Shares will commence at 8.00 a.m. (London time) on 30 October 2013. Following the Admission of the Placing Shares, the issued share capital of the Company will be 170,431,939 ordinary shares.

The Placing Shares will be issued credited as fully paid and will rank pari passu in all respects with the existing ordinary shares, including as to the right to receive and retain all dividends and other distributions declared, made or paid after Admission.

Outlook

The net proceeds of the Placing will be utilised alongside grant funding due to be received during 2014 to finance the continued growth of the Company’s commercial activities with existing customers and new commercial partners around the world. Based on existing financial resources, expected grant receipts and the proceeds of the Placing, the Board believes that the Company has sufficient capital available to finance the working capital requirements of the Company’s current business plan as it expands its commercial and production activities over the next year.

The Board is confident that Acta has a market leading range of innovative hydrogen generator products with a wide range of commercial applications, demonstrated by the recent level of product orders and commercial development partnerships recently announced and looks forward to notifying the market of the Company’s further commercial progress in due course.

Paolo Bert, Chief Executive of Acta commented: “We are delighted with our commercial success and the fundraising will strengthen Acta’s cash resources as we expand our operational capacity to keep pace with the growing demand for our products. We are grateful for the continued support of our shareholders, which will help to drive the already increasing adoption of the Acta Power system in back-up power and renewable energy storage applications.”

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1 Comment to Successful £2.1 million institutional fundraising

I am interested in understanding a little more about your technology and product offerings. As former CTO at Plug Power, I am aware of the opportunities and challenges of the backup power markets, and I am keenly interested in helping to advance the commercialization of sustainable systems.